BUCKING UP

The industrious beaver may have stained, buck teeth that no human would want, but the beaver’s teeth are much stronger than ours. Although beavers neither brush their teeth nor drink fluoridated water, their tooth enamel is more resistant to acid than ours is. To find out why, researchers took a look at the beaver’s brown tooth enamel at the nanoscale and came up with an important finding. While human teeth have small amounts of magnesium in their structure to resist aced, beaver teeth contain iron. Not only does this mineral give the rodent’s teeth its characteristic orange-brown color, but it makes them harder. This finding may lead to new ways to prevent tooth decay in humans.

P.S. Tooth decay is caused by acid produced by bacteria on tooth surfaces that feed on sugar.